From his life history, Yamauchi Hiroshi appeared to be a natural-born talent and a born dictator.
The family business originally started as a Hanafuda workshop.
Through the painstaking efforts of two generations of Yamauchi founders, Yamauchi Fusajiro and Yamauchi Sekiryo, Nintindo completed its initial accumulation of capital.
Shortly after Yamauchi Hiroshi's wedding, Yamauchi Sekiryo suffered a sudden stroke and passed away.
On his deathbed, Yamauchi Sekiryo entrusted Nintindo to Yamauchi Hiroshi.
The young and ambitious Yamauchi Hiroshi immediately accepted this heavy responsibility and dropped out of university.
However, in the eyes of most people, Yamauchi Hiroshi was only the nominal heir to the family business. Behind his back, they called him a "playboy heir."
When the 22-year-old young man walked through the gates of Nintindo, many senior employees were seeing him for the first time in their lives, let alone knowing anything about him.
It's easy to imagine how much contempt the powerful executives held for this inexperienced young man.
Rumors like "That Tokyo playboy is going to ruin Nintindo" began to spread within the company.
Yet to everyone's astonishment, Yamauchi Hiroshi proved to be a far more astute and forceful leader than any of his predecessors.
Shortly after taking office, he swiftly purged the company of its veteran executives and senior managers who opposed him, replacing them with high-salaried recruits from his alma mater, Waseda University, and Tokyo Imperial University.
Yamauchi Hiroshi's distinctive "dictatorship"—a shrewd and iron-fisted rule—was now in full swing.
If Nintindo was the legendary architect of the feudal order in the gaming industry,
then Yamauchi Hiroshi was the tyrant of this feudal empire.
For 53 years, he ruled absolutely, his word law.
No one dared defy Yamauchi Hiroshi's decisions.
After inventing the Famicom in 1983, Nintindo swept through Japan and the West, becoming the world's largest game console manufacturer.
By 1991, the Famicom had astonishingly sold 45 million units.
Relying solely on the Famicom, Nintindo solidified its position as the undisputed king of the gaming industry.
It could be said that:
Nintindo controlled 90% of Japan's game market.
To maintain its iron grip on the gaming industry and learn from the lessons of the Atari Shock, Nintindo established stringent approval processes when creating the Famicom.
On one hand, this was a form of seigniorage. Any game released on Nintindo's platform had to undergo their rigorous review process; only those that passed could be published. Moreover, for every cartridge produced, developers had to pay Nintindo a royalty fee of 2,000 yuan.
This was also a way to protect their own games. Once they discovered a game that might pose a threat to the company, they would restrict its release.
Third-party game developers who signed distribution agreements with Nintindo were limited to releasing no more than five games per year on the Nintindo platform.
By leveraging their console dominance and strict approval system, Nintindo solidified their position while undermining competitors and squeezing out major rivals.
For Yamauchi Hiroshi, game consoles, cartridges, the approval system, and games developed in-house formed a cohesive whole, serving as the foundation of his commercial empire. He believed these elements guaranteed Nintindo's enduring success.
If not for the surprise posed by Sega's Mega Drive, Pokeni's Onmyoji series would never have been released on the FC platform.
Light returned to the conference room.
A rapid succession of memories flashed through Aoki Haruhi's mind like a carousel lantern.
Just as the conference room door was about to close, Aoki Haruhi quickened his pace and grabbed the handle.
"President Yamauchi!"
Hearing his voice, Yamauchi Hiroshi turned around.
"What?"
Aoki Haruhi stepped closer, towering over the white-haired elder.
"I hope you live long enough to see this."
"The humiliation you've inflicted today will be repaid double!"
He delivered a famous line from the TV series "Hanzawa Naoki" and strode out without looking back.
"What?!..."
This was the first time anyone had ever dared to defy him so openly.
Yamauchi Hiroshi's face turned ashen with rage.
Aoki Haruhi... you don't want your games to be released by Nintindo anymore, do you?
"Everyone!"
Aoki Haruhi, having just returned to the company, clapped his hands to gather all the employees.
"Our games will no longer be released on Nintindo platforms!"
Huh?!
The staff was stunned.
What nonsense is the President spouting?
"President, the game is already fully developed."
To announce this now, was he planning to throw away all their efforts?
Though both the Super Famicom and Mega Drive were 16-bit systems, their hardware interfaces were completely different.
While it wasn't a complete redo, re-adapting the game for the Mega Drive would still require significant time and resources.
"Yes!" Aoki Haruhi declared firmly. "Not only The Mermaid's Heart, but all future Pokeni games will be exclusively released on Sega platforms. We're switching to Sega."
Huh?!
This declaration was like a thunderclap out of clear skies.
Everyone was stunned.
In terms of performance, the Super Famicom (SFC) supported a greater variety of colors, so its graphics were undoubtedly more impressive than the Mega Drive (MD).
However, when it came to smoothness and execution efficiency, the MD had a clear advantage.
These differences arose from the distinct development philosophies of the two gaming companies.
The MD, having originated from arcade games, naturally leaned towards arcade-style gameplay, prioritizing smoothness and action.
On the other hand, Nintendo's SFC was better suited for RPGs, excelling in storytelling with softer, more diverse audio capabilities.
This was a major reason why Aoki Haruhi chose the SFC.
The SFC's ability to outperform the MD and become the dominant console was largely due to this strength.
Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, and other renowned RPGs flourished on the SFC, solidifying its position as the industry leader.
"There's nothing we can do," Aoki Haruhi said, bowing deeply. "Nintindo's review committee rejected our proposal. Moreover, due to personal reasons, not only did I fail to negotiate properly with President Yamauchi today, but we ended up having a heated argument instead."
"Pokeni's games will never be released on Nintindo consoles again."
After Aoki Haruhi's announcement, the room fell silent.
Gen Urobuchi felt as if his very soul had been stripped from him.
It's all my fault. My [ Mermaid's Heart ] dragged the company down, forcing the President to beg for mercy and ending up in this disastrous situation...
"It's alright, President," Akanishi Ken stepped forward. "We believe in your judgment. Sega isn't so bad either."
"Exactly! Sega's 16-bit systems have a strong market presence. Releasing through Sega is just as good."
"Yeah, it's not a big deal. We can just collaborate with Sega from now on."
Seeing how understanding everyone was, even comforting him, Aoki Haruhi felt a wave of emotion.
"Then I leave it in your capable hands."
"Let's make our games shine brilliantly on the Mega Drive!"
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